Duck Soup

Some ducks were sleeping, some were preening and some were having a grand time churning up the open water looking for good things to eat. 

In this first picture, toward the center of the paddling madness of goldeneye, scaup and redheads, the two redhead ducks that are just surfacing have some delicious tidbits clamped tightly in their bills. 

Here, it looks like the goldeneye in the foreground might be coming to the surface empty billed, but the two redheads directly behind him managed to score. 

Whatever it is that they were so happily diving into the freezing soup to find looked like big, grayish brown mushrooms. I have no idea what they were. I tried to blow up the pictures to see if I could figure it out, but to no avail. It could either be some kind of aquatic vegetation or some delicious invertebrate critter, since they eat both, but I couldn't get a good enough view to tell. 

Sometimes the lucky duck (like the one in the center here) would be chased by others trying to snatch away the delectable morsel. I never saw any success with the attempted robberies, though. 

Here's an example of two ducks enacting a thrilling chase scene. The preening redhead in the foreground and the goldeneye in the background are totally undisturbed by the battle for possession of the prize.